Yearly Archives: 2014
Nintendo to Start YouTube Affiliate Program to Take Some, Not All, of Fan Channels’ Money
Nintendo has had a hell of a time figuring out how this whole YouTube thing works. Last year, they started cracking down on Let’s Play videos on YouTube by using the video website’s ContentID system to claim revenue from those videos. They also claimed that they were dropping story mode from the upcoming Super Smash Bros. on Wii U because the cutscenes would end up on the internet so it defeated the purpose.
Now, Nintendo, in their great benevolence, have decided to meet Nintendo fans halfway. Rather than take all the ad revenue from the people who help promote their games on YouTube, Nintendo has announced a new YouTube affiliate program that will see both parties splitting the ad revenue.
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Star Wars: Attack Squadron Cancelled by Disney
Just when you thought that the purchase of LucasFilm and LucasArts by Disney would lead to the return of space sims to the Star Wars game library, Disney pulled the rug out from under you. Star Wars: Attack Squadron was cancelled while in the midst of its closed beta.
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Comic Book Pull List for May 28, 2014
Well, I don’t know about you but I’m excited for tomorrow. No, it’s not because it’s my birthday. It’s really not. I’m still in my mid-20s and my hair is starting to go grey. Just little bits on the sides for now but if I keep working myself so hard IRL, it’ll be completely grey. Beats going bald by 30 like my old man, though.
For me this week, it’s only appropriate that The Star Wars, the comic series based on George Lucas’ original draft of the iconic film and franchise, comes to an end this week. I’ve been loving this alternate take on the series since it started though that doesn’t mean that I’m not happy with how the original trilogy turned out in the end. Now, if we could all forget about those damned prequels… Except for III. That one was good.
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Sony Launching Pre-Loading of All Pre-Orders in September
One area that the old brick-and-mortar games retailer still has over your favourite digital retailer is firing up the game on launch day. Sometimes, picking up a game at a midnight launch gets you gaming faster than having to download the game from the various stores you buy from.
Sony is planning to change that on their PlayStation Store this fall. Starting with the launch of Destiny in September, Sony says that all games pre-ordered on the Store will be available for pre-loading prior to the game’s launch so you can play right when the game’s release.
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Game Trailers Roundup for May 26, 2014
Even though last week’s game trailer roundup was later than usual, the last five days have been pretty good for the quantity of trailers. If there’s a game you’re looking forward to, there might have been a trailer released in the last week.
In this week’s edition of the roundup, we have two launch trailers for Drakengard 4 and The Wolf Among Us: Episode 4. There are trailers for the upcoming Murdered: Soul Suspect and Metro Redux. And the fall releases are represented by trailers for Batman: Arkham Knight and Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
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Blizzard Suing StarCraft II Map Hack Creators
Not only do you hate people who use cheats such as map hacking to ruin your StarCraft II experience, Blizzard hates them just as much. The developer and publisher of the top RTS game on the market filed a lawsuit in United States District Court in California against the makers of the “ValiantChaos MapHack.”
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Amazon Patents “Photos Against a White Background”
You knew that the US copyright system was broke. You knew that the US trademark system was broken. Today, here’s proof that the US patent system is also broken.
Online retailer Amazon has been granted a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office for the company’s signature photos of products against a white background. Yes, you can patent that.
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Geek Links of the Week
The cost of developing games on the now current-gen consoles has been going up and we all knew that it would as developers pushed gaming forward. With the prices of games not going up, can or will developers try to keep costs from spiralling out of control? [Develop]
You would think that the next-gen remastered version of a game would an easy development task. However, Naughty Dog’s engine was custom-built for the unique architecture of the PlayStation 3. It’s a bit more work than expected to get it running perfectly on the PS4. At least they’re getting a warm-up for Uncharted 4. [Edge Magazine]
A while back, we mentioned that NASL closed up their doors. An investigation into the reasons for the eSports company closing turned up documents from an insolvency company stating NASL was over $1.6 million in debt when they closed. [eSports Heaven]
We’re used to hearing about how gaming is taking cues from the movies but movies are increasingly looking to video games for ideas. [The Guardian]
Ser Gregor Clegane, The Mountain that Rides, was a recruiting target of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. I’d hazard that he’d be pretty hard to tackle. [NFL.com]
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Law & Order: Game of Thrones
If you’ve kept up with this season of Game of Thrones, you’d know why a Law & Order mashup would be very appropriate. The folks at Double Prizes cut together the Law and Order: SVU intro with Game of Thrones and even gave a little scene starting with the famous Law & Order thunk-thunk sound.
By the way, if you haven’t seen the last couple of episodes: spoilers.
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Critics Corner: Wolfenstein: The New Order
There is little that gamers like more than old franchises. Reboots, remakes, sequels. These are the life blood of modern gaming. While people like new IPs, it seems like people go crazy over old IPs. And I wonder why I lament the death of creativity when the big money makers are sequels. I don’t count GTA in that because each GTA has little to do with the ones preceding it apart from mechanics.
I’ve actually played a little bit of Wolfenstein back at Fan Expo last August. I came away with a few impressions from that demo. First and foremost, I just can’t FPS to save my life and I really can’t without my mouse and keyboard in hand. The visuals weren’t spectacular on the early Xbox 360 build. The gameplay felt decidedly old school with limited regenerating health (from 1% to 25% health), picking up stuff off the ground rather than collecting it by walking over it and crouch jumping. I’d imagine that it changed a bit in the 10 months between when I played it and when you will.
But enough of what I think of Wolfenstein. Let’s see what the professionals think.
et geekera 